About Us

They are created, planned and implemented by our team of adult sector specialists, in partnership with our customers. We are qualified and very experienced professionals who bring together extensive expertise to create resources for your workforce.

Policy Partners Project

Directors

Sam Mayne

Sam has 30 years’ experience as a social worker. Her key areas of practice interest are:

management and leadership;

workforce development and training;

integrated working;

care pathway design.

She worked for 12 years as a senior manager in Adult Social Care specialising in Older Peoples Services and joint working with health. Senior management posts included Head of Service for Intermediate Care and Hospital Discharge; Head of Service Transformation; Safeguarding and Performance.

Achievements:Delivering financial and efficiency savings – achieved improved hospital delayed discharge figures, pilot projects / new ways of working delivered to timescale, establishing high standards of professional practice and staff development, leading teams and integrated services; improved quality of teams and service delivery; performance management; efficiency and financial savings via pathway redesign and innovation; redesign of end to end process.

Angie has nearly 40 years’ experience of working in public and voluntary sector organisations. Key areas of practice include:

working with adults with complex needs;

policy and procedure development;

social policy and criminological research.

She is an associate researcher at the School of Law, University of Sheffield and a trustee and outreach volunteer with SWWOP, a small voluntary sector organisation which works with women involved in street prostitution in Sheffield. She is also involved in ongoing inquiries and investigations in relation to Rotherham child sexual abuse / exploitation, as a result of work she undertook whilst working for South Yorkshire Police, and is contributing to wider lessons learned and the ongoing national debate. She has written a good practice guide with Adele Gladman – Child Sexual Exploitation After Rotherham: Understanding the Consequences and Recommendations for Practice, due for publication in April 2017 (Jessica Kingsley Publishers).

Achievements:
A number of publications in professional journals, edited book, published author and presentations at academic and professional conferences regarding: drug use and supply, child sexual exploitation / organised child sexual abuse and street prostitution. Published author related to PhD thesis.

Associates

Adrian Francis: Solicitor

Adrian provides PPP with independent legal review and advice in relation to the products we provide our customers.

Achievements:Adrian is an experienced solicitor who specialises in the law relating to adult social care specifically community care challenges, care home fees, mental health law and all matters that are before the Court of Protection. A qualified solicitor with over 10 years post qualification experience, he has advised local authorities nationwide on all legal matters relating to adult social care law and policy. He is also an experienced advocate, having appeared in the Court of Protection for both local authority clients and NHS clients from Carlisle in the North to Bristol in the South, in both health and welfare and property and affairs matters.

Emma is a qualified social worker and is registered with Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the British Association of Social Workers (BASW). She has almost 10 years qualified experience of working within local authority adult social care and has experience of working within various fields such as learning disabilities, older people, physical disability and adult mental health fields.

Expertise

Emma has a particular passion for Mental Health and holds additional qualifications as both a Best Interests Assessor and an Approved Mental Health Professional. As part of her Professional Registration Emma is required to attend regular and relative training as part of her AMHP role of which Legal and Policy Framework is often the main focus.

Skills and Knowledge

Working within a multi-disciplinary setting to achieve desired outcomes for individuals, working within a statutory framework, managing resources and personal budgets to maximise a person’s well-being. Emma is trained as a practice educator with the Approved Mental Health Role and is keen to support others to develop within their own career. As an active social worker Emma has a working knowledge of the demands of social care and the importance of current legislation, government guidance and local policy in line with this.

Joanne has over 23 years’ experience of working in local authority social care settings, including children with disabilities, adult mental health and adults with learning disabilities. She worked for 10 years in Adult Safeguarding – the last five years as Head of Safeguarding – and has an established national reputation for the development of policy and procedures in this area. She has also previously worked in partnership with a number of local authorities across the country in developing and delivering local safeguarding adult and adult social care procedures.

Skills and knowledge:
Strategy and policy/procedure development and delivery in multi-agency environments; multi-agency partnership working from operational to Board level; training and workforce development; in-depth knowledge of relevant legislation, government guidance and standards of good practice; reviewing governance structures and business processes to improve efficiency and performance.

Achievements:
On Editorial Board of the ADSS document ‘Safeguarding Adults: A National Framework of Standards for good practice and outcomes in adult protection work’; improved partnership efficiency and effectiveness at Board level; prepared and delivered a number of presentations and workshops at regional and national conferences.

John brings academic rigour, oversight and advice to the content of our policies and procedures work. He also supports the development and delivery of our other products, including training and briefings.

He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick and a Visiting Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has held visiting positions at the Universities of Wisconsin and Wuppertal and has also taught at the Universities of Basel, Bielefeld, Kassel, Leeuwarden, Linnaeus, Seinajoki, St Petersburg and Tampere. Before moving into higher education he worked in social work for 14 years, the last five as a District Manager.

Areas of interest:
Intersections between policy and practice; changing social welfare regimes; management; citizenship; social work with adults. His work on these areas has had a comparative dimension in relation to research and service development in: Australia; Buryatia; the Czech Republic; Finland, Germany; Russia; Sweden; Taiwan; Turkmenistan and the United States. Work in the UK has included: action research and practice development with practitioners and managers in a County Council (30+ projects); team development in a number of local authorities; rebuilding services in a London Borough following major problems; closing an institution for young people and moving policy and practice towards community-based interventions; facilitating a consultation process undertaken by older people; assisting older people with the planning of and their participating in a ‘Debate of the Age’, which was promoted by central government as an exemplar of collaborative working.

Author / editor of 10 books, most recently the Oxford Dictionary of Social Work and Social Care; 40+ articles in peer-reviewed journals; 40+ papers given at international and national conferences.

Qualifications:
CQSW, Dip.SW, BA, MA, PhD, D.Litt.

James Whitehouse: Web Designer and IT Specialist

James has over 7 years of experience producing high-end design solutions, both independently and as part of Careverse – the only specialised company providing websites and graphic design for the social care and safeguarding sector.

Skills and knowledge:
HTML/CSS, PHP, JS; custom and established content management systems; creation and development of creative projects; establishing, and adhering to, visual brand identities; implementation of communications theory; typographical and layout skills; a focus on usability and practicality.